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What is a Ferret?

Wild ancestors T he wild ancestor of all our pet ferrets is the European polecat. Pet ferrets share the same basic behaviors and needs as their wild cousins. So in order to understand your ferrets, it is useful to know how their wild cousins live. Polecats belong to the order Carnivora, the meat eat- ers, and the family Mustelidae. Interestingly, humans have only domesticated a few carnivore species as pets, namely dogs, (family Canis), cats (family Felis), and ferrets. The mustelid family is large and varied. It includes stoats, weasels, mink, otters and badgers. A well-known mustelid is the endangered Giant Otter (Pteronura brasiliensis) from South America that can reach eight feet (2.4m) in length. Several mustelid species including the otter, stoat (ermine), and mink have been hunted by humans for their fur.

What is a ferret?

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Ferrets